I Can Love You
by S. Mark Gunther
Summary: Tonda. Wanda comes downstairs one night to find a surprise. Chapter 2 Now Up!
1. Drunken Frog, Angry Witch

I Can Love You  
By S. Mark Gunther

_I was just thinking that I have been missing you for way too long  
There's something inside this weary head that wants us to love just instead  
But I was just thinking, merely thinking...  
  
I've got loads of pictures  
I've got the one of you in that dancing dress   
But man I feel silly in that dim light   
Just after doing you by the sight of my kodak delights  
I am sinking, merely sinking...  
  
I think about long distance rates instead of kissing you babe  
I'm a singer without a song  
If I wait for you longer my affection is stronger  
I, I was just thinking and thinking, merely thinking  
That this boat is sinking...  
--from 'Teitur - I Was Just Thinking'_

--- 

Late in the evening, the Brotherhood house sat silently in the middle of the street in the middle of the town the Brotherhood inhabited. Wanda woke up out of her sleep and walked downstairs for a drink of water. She had had a rough day with Todd and Pietro and had taken her frustration out on Todd by hex bolting him more then a few times into a wall. Almost as soon as she did it, she felt bad but she couldn't stop. She couldn't stop the feelings of anger coursing through her veins. She willed herself to stop, finally, and drug herself to her room without pausing to even look at Todd's unconscious form.

She walked into the kitchen and poured a glass of water from the faucet. As her hands brought the glass to her lips she remembered that the arguement had started because Todd, in running from an insanely irate John and Pietro, had tripped over her and stained her newly cleaned red leather trench coat. The thought of Todd's body being blasted and shot into as she did just because of her anger caused a deep tremor in the pit of her stomach to course throughout her entire body. It caused her to drop the glass into the sink. It didn't break, though Wanda's feelings and emotions had begun to swirl so much that it didn't really matter if it had or not.

Wanda could feel her body and heart revolting against her mind as she gazed out of the Kitchen window into the darkness. She could see all the little demons inside of her mind playing and leaping and gamboling around her soul; the demons had, apparently, taken residence in the one part of her body she felt was untouchable. Then, as soon as the images reached their zenith, they were replaced with images of Todd kissing her at Arrowrose, Todd holding her in the ski lodge, Todd always taking to her side for things that would damage or irritate his "cuddlebumps". She felt her face smile sadly as she heard an echo of Todd's voice calling out to her in her mind. Her eye teared for a moment before she stubbornly shook it away and turned to leave.

'I can't like him. I just can't. He's Toad...he's not even a human being,' she thought. Then as she reached the door she remembered all the times that he had been more humane to her then she was humane to him. She remembered all the times when she was having a bad day and he'd tell the entire house to shut up for her. Wanda could see him sitting out in front of her door during the brief flu season they had just endured, a care package at his feet and a blanket at his side in case she needed it. She could see him at her feet, looking so peaceful, sleeping in wait for her to emerge. She hadn't wanted to wake him...but did just to yell at him for being in the way. Wanda felt her shame grow once again as she realized that he really did love her, in his own unique way. She felt ashamed that she, at least, couldn't treat him with more respect.

'Toad, why do you have to even be in my mind like this now? Why?' Wanda walked slowly into the hallway, passing by the TV room. She wouldn't have even stopped were it not for the flickering light from the television set silohuetting Todd's slight frame on the couch. She looked at him and he seemed to be staring off into the fuzzy snow with a lost look on his face. His amber eyes shone in the darkness yet they seemed almost muted and flat when compared to their normal, lustrous shine. She just looked at him for a moment.

"Toad?" Wanda said with a flat voice. Todd didn't move, so Wanda came closer and called again. "Toad!"

"Yes?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I was thinking. I was drinking. I was thinking and drinking, cuddles," Todd said in a flat voice, matching Wanda's tone. He turned his head and smiled at her but nothing joyous was in the smile. Wanda saw this and looked at him for a long moment before speaking again, her voice slow and measured.

"You've been drinking?"

"Yup. Had a couple of shots to help me think, yo. It worked. I don't feel nothin' now and I'm completely pain free," Todd shakily replied. He grimaced suddenly as a momentary lapse of pain ripped through his back. once the moment passed, he grabbed a bottle that sat by his arm rest and took a long swig. Wanda was so involved in seeing that she didn't even have the inclination to hex him, to stop him, to save him...from himself.

"You shouldn't do that. We're mutants. We can't take alcohol like that, Todd," Wanda said, Todd's name escaping her lips before she could even realize it.

"Well, I shouldn't be chasing after you because it's hazardous to my health, cuddles, but I just want you. I love you, yo, even though one day it just might kill me. So I figure a couple of drinks won't hurt to help me think," Todd said with a sad smile. Hs leaned his head back and laughed for a moment before the laughter mutated into a mix of crying and groaning. Wanda watched him drop the bottle to the floor, the sticky liquid pouring out onto the floor. She walked over and pulled him into her arms. She marveled as to how light he truly was...but how much he could lift.

"Come on, you."

"Where...where we goin'?"

"I'm taking you to your bed and we're getting some sleep."

"Really? We're going to bed? How wonderful, yo," Todd said before slumping over as another groan inducing wave of pain flashed through him. Wanda sighed and carried him up the stairs, his thin body growing only slightly heavier as she climbed upwards to his room. She entered his room and immediately smelled Todd's unique smell. It wasn't a stench but merely a smell of green grass and growing things and water. She vaugely remembered that he was, in fact, amphibian and that it would be perfectly natural to be close to his fellow frogs and toads in smell. Wanda laid Todd down and sat next to him.

"Where are we?" Todd asked shakily.

"You're in your room. I'm about to leave. Todd, if you ever drink again, over me or anything else, I will personally kill you. We don't need you drinking yourself to death, you little wart," Wanda said, an odd tonal darkness in her voice. She felt her heart finally beginning to heal more and faster as she saw Todd's lithe frame on the bed all bunched up and twisted. He looked at her disjointedly and nodded.

"I won't, sweetie. I won't."

"Good. Now goodnight."

"Wait! Please...don't go..."

"What is it?" Wanda asked tersely, her inner struggle continuing without rest.

"I...I'm sorry for pissing you off, so much, Wanda. I just...sometimes I just feel so much love for you that I want to express it all that I can," Todd croaked, his voice oddly clear yet oh so distant. "I know I bug you and I know you don't really see me as someone you'd ever be able to love...but I love you. I want you to know that, yo. You're my cuddlebumps. You're the reason I wake up sometimes, now that we're alone here in the house. You're my reason to keep going; my hope for tomorrow."

"Todd, stop..."

"No. You need to hear this," Todd replied, his amber eyes sliding into fire red for a moment, the alcohol in his body overriding his good common sense. "I...I'm going to try and clean up more for you, Wanda. I know I get kind of strong but I've finally found a soap that won't make me as sick as I can get when I wash...and I'm trying to get money for clothes so I don't look like a total bum. I'm just asking for time, yo."

"Time for what?" Wanda asked, her throat oddly tight.

"Time for me to get better for you. You're who I want, yo. I love you." Todd clung close to Wanda for a moment, his arms wrapping around her waist. Wanda sat silent for a moment, feeling him close to her for the first time in a long time. She could feel the side of her nightgown become stained with his tears, the skin on his cheek rubbing against her side. She could feel his hairs tickling her arms. Wanda liked this Todd, the real Todd against her...and she couldn't deal with it.

"Todd, I'm going to bed. We'll talk in the morning." She tried to lift herself off the bed but found that Todd's lithe arms had clamped down on her, his whimpers coming out more and more.

"Why do you hate me, Wanda?"

"What?"

"Why do you hate me so much, Wanda? Why do you feel like you could never think that I could help make you happy?"

"It...it's not that." Wanda finally said. "I don't hate you. I might not like what you do at times but I don't hate you."

"Then what?"

"I don't know...being gone so long...and in the asylum...I don't know love anymore. From anyone, even you."

"I see." At that, Todd's arms slid from around her sides and he rolled over to his other side, his back shivering a little. "Would you mind covering me up before you leave, Wanda?"

"Sure." Wanda spread a blanket that was on the floor over him and he laid there for a moment. "Are you sure you're going to be alright?"

"Yeah, yo. I'll be alright. I got a bucket here if I need to puke so I'll make it through the night." Todd didn't turn and for a long moment Wanda just stared at the little lump of frogboy in the thin blanket. A deep sigh slid from her lips as she turned to leave.

"Wanda?" She turned and looked at Todd, who still had her back turned to him. "If you ever want to learn what love could be...you know where I am. I do love you, cuddlebumps. I love you, Wanda and I always will." 

Wanda turned and left the room, her face flushing for a moment as she slid into her room. She leaned against the door to still her heart from beating and racing, to stop the ebb and flow of the room as it weaved in her mind. She slid down till she sat on the floor, her back against the door and her face scrunching up tight like a clam. Tears began to roll down her face, slowly but determined. She choked back a sob...then another, till she was softly crying, her feet lying spread out against the floor.

Wanda could see in her tears the boy who loved her...and the distance between them. She hated the very sight of herself unable to love someone who selflessly loved her without worry or fear. She hated herself more then ever.

**A/N: **OK, this might seem like your normal Tonda...and it might be. I'm just wanting to write something different. I might add some Tabitha/Lance in here if people think it could work. This was written one night when I just wanted to finish a thought. I also wanted Wanda to be as IC as she could be without making her rigid. I might sequel this...but not now. Other fics have priority. But please review if you want more. No matter when.


	2. Who Knew Lance Was A Good Listener?

_I walked across an empty land  
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand  
I felt the earth beneath my feet  
Sat by the river and it made me complete  
  
Oh simple thing where have you gone  
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on  
So tell me when you're gonna let me in  
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin  
  
I came across a fallen tree  
I felt the branches of it looking at me  
Is this the place we used to love?  
Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?  
  
Oh simple thing where have you gone  
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on  
So tell me when you're gonna let me in  
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin  
  
And if you have a minute why don't we go  
Talk about it somewhere only we know?  
This could be the end of everything  
So why don't we go  
Somewhere only we know?  
-- from "Keane - Somewhere Only We Know"_

Lance woke up from his slumber, his eyes taking in the soft sunlight from his window as he rose. He sat up in bed and looked around his room. For a moment, he wasn't sure if he was still dreaming or if he was awake...but then he realized that he was, in fact, awake and alert. He slid out of bed and walked downstairs to the kitchen to make himself some breakfast. As he passed by the common room he saw a liquor bottle on its side, half empty on the floor. Lance shook his head and smirked a little. Someone was going to have a massive hangover when they woke up.

He turned the corner into the kitchen and saw Wanda sitting at the table, her hands wrapped firmly around a cup of coffee, her eyes gazing off into the distance through the window above the sink. Lance looked at the scene; the sober Goth girl looking even more sober and silent, her hands gripping a mug like it was a lifeline to something, her nightshirt covering a bit more then half of her slender legs and hips. She looked less and less like a warrior and more and more like a lost little girl playing grown up games. Lance knew this because at that moment he saw the way Tabitha had looked the one night he had seen her awake before 9 am. She had carried nearly the exact same look on her face and held her cup almost identical to Wanda's posture. Lance didn't say anything then and soon after Tabitha left the house. He, deep down, was scared another person would leave their home. He didn't want that to happen...but he didn't want Wanda angry at him either.

Lance walked forward to the refrigerator and opened it as quiet as he could. He saw her stir and look behind her to him, her face long and drawn out. He heard her speak as he pulled out a carton of milk and a piece of fruit.

"Morning."

"Morning," Lance replied as he put the milk and fruit down on the counter. "I'll be out of your way in a moment."

"...That's ok. You don't have to go just because I'm here." Wanda replied, her voice soft. "Actually...I'd prefer it if you stayed." Lance turned around, a box of corn flakes in his right hand, a bowl in his left hand. He looked at Wanda looking at him, a strangely sad look on her face.

"You mean you actually want someone to be around you?"

"Lance, please don't make this any harder then it already is," Wanda replied softly. She looked down at her coffee for a moment before speaking again. "I just...I just want to know someone's here. I want people to not be afraid of me."

"Well, to be honest, you tend to frighten people. Hexing them just for making a comment that you don't like tends to make people not want to be around you." Lance sat down with his bowl of cereal and his fruit and looked across the table to Wanda. He felt his face flush a little as he realized that Wanda, in her own way, was very pretty. "Todd, of course, is the exception to that. I think he actually likes you hexing him."

"He does. He loves me. And that fucking sucks." A long silence followed Wanda's words and neither spoke, their heads filling with thoughts.

"The idea that Todd loves you sucks, Wanda?" Lance asked cautiously.

"No. The idea that someone is willing to stay this long around me at my worst...and I don't feel the same things for them sucks."

"You think you're at your worst?"

"Well this is obviously not my best, Lance." She shook her head angrily, her hands gripping the cup even more. Lance was sure he was going to have to clean up the breaking of the mug as Wanda was gripping the porcelain so hard. "I mean, I treat you and Todd and Fred and John like shit when all you guys have done me no wrong. The only person I should even partially be angry at is Pietro...and even I'm not angry at him. I want to kill everything...but I don't want to be alone."

"What do you mean?"

"...I'm going to tell you this and if you tell anyone else, I'll kick your ass. Got it?"

"Got it."

"My biggest fear is being alone. I'm ok with being alone...but I'm not." Wanda sighed for a moment, wondering just why she was opening up to anyone, least of all Lance Alvers. She looked at his face and saw that he was merely looking at her, his face impassive. She smiled a little. Wanda knew that Lance tried to lead, despite Pietro being the de-facto leader of the house and she knew that with better circumstances, he'd do as good a job or better then Cyclops. She knew Lance was good for something like this...she just didn't know how well. "Being in the asylum makes you able to deal with being alone. But when the doctors would leave, I could hear them talking about me amongst themselves. It made me feel like they were glad to be leaving the freak." She paused a moment, her voice cracking a little. "It feels like that here, sometimes."

Lance looked at the 17 year old girl for a moment before speaking, his voice slow and his volume controlled. "Honestly, I know I want you to stay. I like having you here. I especially like having you talking to me. It's good knowing you're like us."

"You think I'm like you guys?"

"Most definitely. Despite what your father might think, we're here because we need one another. We're here because we need to stay together. Todd's an orphan, I was given up to the state at 13, you were committed and Fred was a freak with the other freaks. The only person who really doesn't fit here is John and I suspect that that isn't even true because there's something about him that makes me think he's just like us." Lance got up and put his now finished bowl of cereal into the sink and poured himself a cup of strong coffee. He took a sip, smiled, and sat back down. "Plus, you make good coffee."

"Thanks."

"...Wanda, you're also nutty like us. We're all a little bit left of center. We're all slightly insane here. I'm almost convinced that this is par for the course for us. Maybe having this X-Gene bullshit makes us go slightly nuts. I'm not sure," Lance said softly, looking down into his cup for a moment. "But I do know you're just a strange as the rest of us. And frankly, I wouldn't want you any other way." He snorted and smirked sadly. "If it weren't for the fact that Todd loves you...and I already have someone I need to be with, I'd give you a try."

"Nice to know I'm wanted." Lance looked up at Wanda's eyes and noticed that she was smiling for the first time. He smiled back and they laughed for a moment.

"It's the truth. Just like the truth that Todd loves you."

"That's just it, Lance: how can I love someone like him? More to the point, how can he love someone like me?" Wanda shook her head for a moment and looked off into the distance, her frown sliding back onto her face. "I'm not that pretty, I'm not smart, I don't do tricks, and I'm a mean human being. What does he see in me?"

"Honestly, the same things I see in you: a sweet girl twisted by both her mutation and her life. I see the sweet girl in you. You're mean because of the things done to you but you can change." Lance looked at her for a moment. "While I lived on the street, I had a friend who raised pit bulls. To everyone else, his pit bulls were mean and vicious, but to me and him they were the sweetest dogs in the world."

"Oh, so now you're going to compare me to a pit-bull?" Wanda asked dryly but with more then a little bit of frustration. Lance rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Let me finish." He cleared his throat and continued. "He'd train these dogs to be loyal to those people who didn't show fear in being around them. Once the dogs accepted the people, they were totally loving and loyal. One day we found a pit that had been used in underground animal fighting. He was hurt badly and we tried to move him but couldn't until we shot him with some tranquilizer. Once we cleaned him up and treated him, we kept him trying to rehabilitate him. But all the times we tried to play with him, he just snarled and barked and tried to hurt us. Over time, however, we found out that he was still hurting inside.

" 

"How can you know what a dog is feeling?" Wanda asked, slightly confused by all this.

"Their eyes. Every time my friend's pits would bark at us, we saw sparkles of life in their eyes. In this dog, we saw nothing but darkness. But we kept him and eventually he became better. He learned to trust and he learned to love. When I left for Bayville, that dog basically clamped onto my leg and almost wouldn't let me go. That's patience. That's the kind of patience Todd has in trying to bring the beauty in you out. Honestly," Lance said softly, "That boy has the most persistence and patience of anyone in this house. He can do what Pietro can't: love you unconditionally."

"But how can I possibly love him?"

"The same way he loves you. Unconditionally." Lance looked back into Wanda's eyes and sighed. "I lost that when I and Kitty broke up. I lost the ability to love unconditionally. And I lost that when the person I want now left. Honestly, knowing now what I know, I should have kept her here when Mystique threw her out."

"Who is this person?"

"I...I don't want to say," Lance said slowly before remembering that, in fact, Wanda didn't know her. Wanda didn't know the history of what happened in the Brotherhood before she joined. He wondered if he could trust her...

"Oh come on, I told you my deepest feelings. It's only fair I know whom you pine for." Wanda smiled a little when she said this, trying to draw something out of the brown haired boy. Lance smiled as he recognized the attempt to mine information from him. He took a deep breath and let half of it out. The coffee cup shook in his hand as he spoke.

"Do you know the history of who was here at this house before you came?"

"Not really."

"Well, we had two other girls live here from time to time. You might know about Rogue living here as part of the Brotherhood."

"Actually, now that you mention it, I do."

"Well...there was one more. She used to be a part of the X-Men but she left when she couldn't deal with their brand of bullshit. She lived here for a while then she left. I...I kind of had a quiet crush on her but she had a big fat raging one on me. I learned all this the night she left."

"Whoa."

"Yeah. I've been thinking about her a lot, seeing Kitty with that metal asshole, Piotr." Lance snorted and looked off, his eyes clouding over a little bit. "I failed...and he's going to succeed because he's a gentle giant and I'm an insensitive shit."

"Now stop THAT shit, Lance," Wanda said sharply. Lance looked up and saw a different type of emotion in her eyes, the kind of familiar concern he hadn't seen in her or anyone else in the house save Fred and Todd for a long time. "Look, you're not the best at expressing what's on your mind...but even I know you're trying your best for us and for those you care about. So either shit or get off your pity pot because I'm not listening to this." Wanda's voice dropped for a moment. "Hearing you makes me wonder if you're the jerk everyone over at the mansion makes you out to be or just misunderstood and I'm not going to lose someone who might understand me because he can't deal."

"Then what the hell do you suggest?"

"Find her. Bring her back. Reconcile. Do a bunch of things. Work things out. We're the Brotherhood, right?" She smiled a wan smile, a look that rather confused Lance. "We're not expected to be much so we don't have to play by anyone's rules but our own."

"...which her, Wanda? Which her?" Lance asked, his eyes shining with unshed tears.

"Whichever one you feel will accept you just as you are." She looked down at her cup for a moment. "I'm trying to figure out how to like that little slime ball just as he is. He disgusts me so much...but Todd's done more for me here then I'll ever be able to repay."

"Then it's just like I said before: Love him just because he loves you. It doesn't have to be that complicated anymore. At least for us. Maybe this is what we have to do to find happiness." Lance got up and walked to the sink, placing his cup in the basin. He turned back to Wanda and smiled. "I mean, John and Pietro are two steps away from fucking on the front lawn..."

"What?"

"You didn't know? Those two are crushing on each other hard. They deflect it with all their talk about who's the bigger chick magnet and shit...but they're attracted to each other. I can see it."

"Well. That's strange."

"You're telling me. But I, for one, am glad."

"Why?"

"Pietro's no longer crushing on me." At that, Lance walked to the doorway, stopping and looking over his shoulder. "Just do this for me. Give Todd a chance. He's a good kid. He just needs a good woman to set him right. You could do the job nicely."

"I make no promises. But I will think about it." Wanda held her jaw and chin as firm as she could while saying this. Lance nodded and turned to leave. "Lance?" Wanda said softly as he turned out the door. Lance came back and looked at her for a moment.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For everything."

"It's no problem. You're one of us now, Wanda. You're a member of the Brotherhood and we take care of our own." At that, Lance left and walked down the hallway to the stairs, passing a slightly hung over Todd Tolensky who slowly walked down the stairs, his normally pale eyes and skin appearing even more drawn and shaded. "Whoa, Toad. What the hell happened to you?"

"Y'dont wanna know, yo."

"Whatever. But if you puke, you're cleaning it up." Lance walked past the shorter boy with a smirk, knowing full well what had happened by just looking at Todd's emaciated form. He snickered a little while walking into his room but his smile faded as the enormity of the conversation began to weigh on his head and heart. He wondered just when he had become, once again, the de facto leader of the Brotherhood and why it was that he was cast in that role.

Lance sat down on his bed and looked down at his hands for a moment. Then he reached into the drawer on the nightstand that was on the side of his bed, pulling out a small plain piece of paper. He reached for a phone and dialed a set of numbers on the bottom. After three rings, the ringing stopped and a voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Hello."

"Who is this?"

"The one who needs you."

"...how...how did you know it was me?"

"I know you. At least, I used to."

"I see. So, what do you want from me, Lance? Another shoulder to cry on? Another sympathetic ear?"

"You."

"What?"

"I want you. Period. Get on a plane and come back here. Now."

"You expect me to leave everything here just because you think you need me?"

"I don't think I need you. I know I do. And yeah, it's not like you're doing that well there anyway." A pause, as Lance tried to form better words in his mind. "Look...you were right. I was trying to be more then I could be. Now I just want to be who I am. I want you to love me."

"...you're finally admitting I was right? Something must be wrong."

"The only thing that's wrong is us not being together. Now come home. Please."

A pause. "I'll be there in 2 days."

"I'll be waiting."

"You will. Because if you're not, I'm going to kick your ass."

"Spoken like the woman I used to know." Lance laughed for the first time in a long time when he said this and he was rewarded with gentle girlish laughter on the other side of the line. "But yes. I will be here."

"Good. I'll call you as soon as I hit LaGuardia Airport."

"Fine. One last thing, though..."

"What is it?"

"I...I've missed you, Tabitha."

"...I've missed you too, Lance. It's been too long, Rocky..."

"I know. Goodbye for now."

"Goodbye for now." At that, the phone went dead and Lance held the silent receiver to his ear for a moment. A slow smile crept back to his lips. Tabitha was coming home. Maybe now, he'd be able to write a wrong in his life.

*** 

Todd staggered into the kitchen and looked up, seeing Wanda looking at him with a strange expression on her face. He sat down at the table and looked at her for a moment. "Hi."

"Hi."

"Look, Wanda...I'm sorry about last night."

"Don't be. Just don't ever drink again. Okay?"

"Okay." A long silence passed, and then Todd belched and groaned a little. Wanda shook her head and smiled a little.

"Feeling bad?"

"Somewhat. A sunning on the lawn will help that, cuddles."

"What do you mean?" Wanda asked, now slightly confused.

"I'm going to go lay out in the sun and hopefully rest in the air to wipe away these last lingering feelings like I wanna puke," Todd said slowly, his eyes beginning to see more and more as his conscious mind went more and more into focus. He saw Wanda looking down at her cup of coffee again and wondered what she was thinking about.

"Todd?"

"Yes, Wanda?"

"Did you mean what you said last night?"

"What did I say?"

"You said that you were going to get better for me. Change. Shower. Stop eating flies..."

"Well, I never said anything about the flies, shnookmus," Todd said with a wry smile. Wanda looked up, waiting to see a sneer on Todd's face but instead saw the same loving expression that he had begun to make famous in her heart and mind. She smiled back at him, a motion that both shocked and surprised her but she didn't stop until she stood up and walked to the coffeemaker to refill her cup.

"You said you wanted me to get to know you. Well, how about tomorrow night?"

"What do you mean?"

"There's a poetry reading tomorrow night that I was going to go to. Would you like to go with me?"

"Sure."

"Ok." Wanda sighed for a moment before looking back at the short pale green boy. "I'll be downstairs in the living room at 7.30. If you're late, I leave without you."

"I understand."

"Fine. I'll talk to you later." At that, Wanda left the kitchen but was stopped by Todd's tongue wrapping around her wrist. She slid it off her arm and turned around to face him, annoyance written lightly on her face. Todd stood up and walked to her, a needy look on his face.

"Wanda...I just want you to know...that...I love you, yo. I really, really love you."

"...I know." Wanda turned and ran from the room, her own thoughts beginning to betray her. Todd looked into the hallway as she left and sighed. Silently he walked past the living room entrance and out the front door, settling on the front lawn. The early morning sun had finally reached more of its heating potential and as Todd settled underneath the glowing ball, he smiled a little. His thoughts were so on Wanda and having a date with her the next evening that he totally missed Pietro and John making out on the porch. As he passed them by, John stopped their actions and looked at the frog boy laying himself out on the lawn. He turned to Pietro and mouthed, "What's going on?"

Pietro merely shrugged and kissed John again, their eyes no longer looking at the now slumbering frog boy.

*** 

**A/N: **Ok, this was a little long to write. But I like the way this is playing out. Tabitha's return, Todd's date, Jietro: Explained, and Fred makes an apperance and befriends an animal. All next...but you have to review for it to happen. Give me ideas and feedback. Please. Oh, and get the album by Keane called Hopes and Fears. The song snippet in the top is from them and they rule. They're like a cross between Ben Folds Five and Coldplay. They rule. Yup.

Anyway, review. Please.


End file.
